personal – Page 8 – CanonBlogger

Post #500: Celebrating a Milestone!

August 21, 2009 Jason11 Comments

balloons-42

Not sure where to begin really – this is all kind of surreal, because I really didn’t think that this milestone would see me where things are today with the blog. Needless to say, the blog has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, so thanks to everyone who’s made that possible. Without further ado, here’s the big news (via YouTube video, so feed readers, stop in and get the news by taking a few minutes out of your day for this exciting video news bulletin!):

For the data hounds, here’s a rundown of some of the stats for a snapshot of what’s that’s happened thus far on the blog:

Posts = 500
Comments = 1107
107 Categries
544 Tags
Total Visitors = 231,000
Single Highest Traffic Day: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Subscribers: 1006
Highest Subscriber Count Ever: 1018 (4 days ago)

That’s a lot of stuff when you think about it. So, for all the thousands of you that have been tuning in regularly, thanks so much for all your kind thoughts, words, and contributions over all this time. Tune in to the YouTube video for the contest news and some other fun stuff! In the meantime, keep on shooting – you know what’s coming up in the next 500 posts! Happy shooting everyone. Have an awesome weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday for post #501!

Post # 499: Audioboo Addition!

August 20, 2009 JasonLeave a comment

As promised, as we gear up for magical #500 tomorrow – more content has been added to the blog. This is not something that can be gotten from the feed though, so for you feed readers out there, stop over the the blog and check out the new widget in the side panel that has links to… AudioBoo!

audioboo

So, what is Audioboo? AudioBoo is a unique way for people with iPhones and iPod Touches to share their short audio recordings – courtesy of the folks at Audioboo.fm It’s kind of a cool concept, because the recordings (called “boos”) are typically short – 2-5 minutes in length, and if you visit the site, you can see there is quite a bit of content there. If you’d like to pick up my audio feed from that directly, you can grab the RSS for that by following this link: http://audioboo.fm/profile/CBJason.

The whole premise behind this is that I can deliver audio tips and tricks, thoughts and ideas relating to photography to you whenever a good idea strikes! It should be a fun experiment and I can promise that there will be some personal stuff to give a little more variety too (like my favorite brew at a local microbrewery!) Fair warning – as football season rapidly approaches, you may here more Broncos talk too! I’ll try to stay on point with photography ideas though, so either pick up the feed there, or (preferrably) visit the blog regularly for content updates. This is definitely in a beta stage and may grow or fade away depending on interest, time, and other factors.

In other news, I’ve had a number of people as about photos taken from the star tracking station I built and recorded onto YouTube. Unfortunately, the astrophotography gods have not been kind thus far as the night sky has had a lot of cloudiness. Hopefully this weekend will be more favorable – but I am planning on packing it into the bottom of my checked back on my upcoming trip.

Speaking of which, thanks to everyone who gave their thoughts on what the last book should be for the trip. I’ll likely be making my book purchases through Amazon this weekend (unless the library comes through for me again! 🙂 ), and I’ll have an announcement on Monday of who wins the B&H gift card, so be sure to stay tuned for that!

Given the title of this post – you should at least have an idea of what’s coming tomorrow – but it’s a two-fold announcement, and because it’s just so cool, I am going to be announcing something big for the September Giveaway too! And how’s that for a great segue to let you know that there is little time left in the August Giveaway – where you can Win a Wacom! (Click the link for the Flickr thread and details.)

Well, that’s enough for today – happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the big one!

Grab the Feed

Post #498: A few shots from the Photo Walk

August 19, 2009 Jason9 Comments

You’d think these would be shots from the Scott Kelby Photo Walk, but that’s only half right. Ever since the first photo walk last year in Golden, CO…several of us kept the concept cooking with regular meet-ups (through www.meetup.com, a great place to organize get-togethers for any type of group, not just photography). Anyway, this meetup group has been getting together on a regular basis (monthly to semi-monthly depending on season)…and we had our August photo walk back at historic Golden CO (in honor of last years Scott Kelby photowalk that was held there).

Since I am on the subject of photo walks, before the pics, it helps to say a few words about these gatherings. They are probably one of the most enjoyable things about photography, because you get together with people that share the same passion you do for the craft. You get to trade shots and techniques, talk shop, and gear, post processing – the works. I have made some great friends from both photo walks, so kudos to Scott Kelby and the NAPP organization for hatching the idea for these types of get-togethers. While the activity has always been around to a degree – the awareness and energy that they’ve brought to it are astounding!

Okay, enough fan-dom for the day – here’s my photo gallery shots I’ve worked on thus far. Got a few regular shots and an HDR using the trial version of Photomatix (I still haven’t ponied up to buy this…I need to do that soon!):

I know these are all pretty much snapshot material, but it’s part of what makes photo walks so much fun – just random pics, and socializing! Unless of course you take your photowalking more serious… On that note, share your thoughts on photo walks in the comments. Do you find them useful? If so, for what? If not, share those thoughts as well. Chime in, as comments are always appreciated! (Oh yeah, can anyone tell which one is the HDR? No peeking for the “photomatix” stamp!)

One final note – we are in the final days of the August contest over in the Flickr threads. This month, the prize is a Wacom Bamboo Fun! (I reviewed this last month on the blog, and you can check out the review here.) The retail value of this is $100, and the submission count is a little lighter this go around, so your odds of winning are even better – for now! Anyway, like the Lotto, if you don’t play, you can’t win – and this one is free! So, share your “fun” themed shots today in the Flickr group – see the thread for more details here: Bamboo Fun Giveaway

Okay, that’s all the photos, news, and contest info I have for this 498th post. We’re closing in on magical #500 – only a couple days to go, so stay tuned as the posts will likely get more and more multimedia filled. And, if you tune in to #500 – a great giveaway exclusive to that day will also be announced! So, as we count down the days remaining, keep on shooting. Until tomorrow, hope all your shots are great ones!

Grab the Feed

Follow me on Twitter

How to build a star tracker!

August 17, 2009 Jason4 Comments

Rather than go through another hardware review today, I thought I would share a different kind of hardware with you – the DIY kind! Over the weekend I embarked on a little project on building a device to track stars as they move across the sky (even though it’s really the earth that’s moving and not the sky). Now granted, there are better ways to build star trackers, but many involve electronic motors, are more complex (in my mind anyway), and can get kind of costly (at least from what I’ve read). So, I figured I’d start simple, and go from there. Join me in this adventure in building my first star tracker for under $20!

It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot in doing it, both about other methods, some of the short comings of this approach, but for the cost, figured it’d be a good entry into doing these kinds of things for comparison sake. Check out the main YouTube video that gives a narrative on the process and my finished result:

The reference material I used for building this leaf-style star tracker came from a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (sounds impressive enough to me!), so figured I should give credit here as well: http://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-star-tracker.html

If you have thoughts, comments, feedback, or suggestions to either improve this one, on how you’ve made your own (or plan on making one), and even if you have shots to share made from DIY star tracker kits, please feel free to et me know via either the comments or email! I will start a photo gallery for all shots shared and plan on updating that monthly with all the photos received, either via links in the comments or via email!

Happy (star) shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

P.S. Don’t forget, we’ve still got the Wacom Bamboo Fun Giveaway going on all this month! Share your shots in the Flickr thread and you’re entered to win this prize worth $100 retail! Thanks go out to the folks at Wacom for contributing this awesome tool for blog readers and podcast listeners!

Grab the Feed

Teaching to Learn…

August 6, 2009 JasonLeave a comment

For those of you that don’t know – there is a cool little feature available for iPhone and iPod Touch users called AudioBoo, where you can record up to three minutes of audio soundbites and share online. It’s a pretty neat little feature, and allows for short bursts of ideas. I shared just such a recording (they are called “boos”) this evening after I left the Exposure Denver photo club meeting. You can listen to the recording here or continue reading below my thoughts on the Exposure Denver experience!

Speaking of which, the gang from the group was so cool – everyone was so welcoming! They asked me to come in and share some tips and insights on Lightroom, which I was quite flattered but honored to do. If you want to learn more about Exposure Denver, follow the link to their blog where they have news of upcoming events, activities and more. These folks take it to the next level with regular galleries, themes, critiques, reviews, and yes, you can sell prints at the shows! A lot of thought, time and preparations go into the group and everyone contributes! It was quite an energizing and motivating dynamic and has me very excited in ways that I have not even explored yet photographically and creatively. My head is literally bursting with possibilities. And why is this?

Because I was thrust into a teaching role, on a subject I am (or was) admittedly not an expert in! I have no idea how it all started anymore, but this further confirms what I’ve known from prior experience in another field – the best way to learn about something is to try and teach it to someone else. It forces you to get up to speed, get current, and learn more than you did before. This happens in three ways:

You do research to prepare your class note, talking points and handouts. I learned so much just from pulling all these resources together.

Others in the class will know things you don’t. Without fail, this always happens. There is no way you can expect to know more than everyone else on a subject you are teaching unless you have 20 years of age and experience over the audience. But I was not in front of kindgarteners this evening – these were peers (and several were even a few steps ahead of me). We each brought value to the table and while some probably learned a lot from me – others schooled me! (But in a good way!)

So, if you want to really get your fingernails dirty, dig into something and know it better than you ever did before: try teaching it! I did and learned more than I ever have before about Lightrooom.

Filling the Frame: Flowers, Faces, & Fixtures

August 5, 2009 Jason5 Comments

Rules of Composition are all around us, and we are reminded of them all the time. Terms like Rule of Thirds are bandied about by everyone (including yours truly, having blogged about it myself here, here and here). Other terms and compositional “best practices” and rules of thumb include things like “The Golden Mean”, “Sunny 16” and many many more. But one that I have found to be most successful is the one of “filling the frame”. This holds true for many types of photography. For instance, there’s floral photography:

There’s also portraiture:

Architectural work also can use this concept:

lamp post

The one that probably does not lend itself too well to the compositional approach of “filling the frame” is landscape work. But, as we all, know, exceptions often prove the rule! And as much as I hate to admit it, and agree with the rules, here’s one that can almost always be used to improve your photography. Here’s three reasons couple reasons why filling the frame works a lot of the time:

It eliminates distractions – everything else around it becomes cropped out of the scene, leaving the viewer with nothing to grab their attention but the subject of the photo. In the first shot, what else can you see besides the flower? The second? The third? There is literally nothing else to look at.
It accentuates lines and points of focus or interest in your pictures. In the first shot – your eyes can’t help but go to the center because that’s where all the lines are pointing. In the second, the girls eyes are a natural point of focus, and then in the third – the flame naturally draws you in as well as the sharp lines of the lamp itself.
Backgrounds become blurred and/or beautiful! Bokeh, or soft blurring of out of focus areas is a natural side effect of getting up close and personal. And if your f-stop is set lower to catch more detail, you are likely in close enough where the entire background is one consistent color like in the latter two shots.

This is, of course, just my 2¢. What are your thoughts on filling the frame? Does the approach work or is it too “in your face”? These are questions that will likely be posed until the end of time, because they are by their very nature, subjective. nevertheless, in sharing our thoughts, we can increase our appreciation of, and become more cognizant of the works of others and grow as artists. So, share your thoughts in the comments!

In the meantime, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Grab the Feed

Repost: Quality versus Quantity

July 28, 2009 Jason10 Comments

I’ve got a few software reviews up my sleeve for both Windows and mac, but ratehr than rush them out the door prematurely, I’d rather postpone that material in the interests of sharing some rather thought-provoking content on the question of quality versus quantity. I’d written this post before, and the first publication got a few interesting email responses – so we’ll see if the debate is still holding true. Tell me what you think: Does quality trump quantity or vice versa? Here’s my take:

“Okay, I’m done.”

“That’s it? You’ve only been shooting for ten minutes!”

“Yep, got about 50 shots, I should have 4-6 proofs for you from that bunch.”

“So we’re done?”

“Pretty much…I mean I can keep shooting, but there’s really no point, it’ll just be duplicates of the same stuff.”

This was the dialog I had with a co-worker a short fair time ago when I went to take pictures of her son for her. It is indicative of a mentality that exists in society…not only is size king, but so is quantity. If you were to take two photographers and set them side by side, who would you think is a better photographer: the one who took 40 shots or the one who took 400? Many of the general public would probably respond by saying the latter, without giving it much thought.

Yeah, I took 50 instead of 40, because I have not been a pro shooter for 20 years, so I gave myself a little bit more of a margin for error. Having checked ISO, white balance and histogram settings though, I was pretty confidant that all that was left was composition – so I went with my instinct for what would make a good composition, took 3 or 4 different angles and was done. Ten shots of each pose was enough. I have photographer friends who still take 25 shots of each pose with only negligible differences in lighting or facial expression. Can you see it when blowing up to 200%? Sure, but who looks at pictures that close?

Nevertheless, photographers fall victim to this mentality of delivering a massive quantity of images. I know of several studios that just inundate their clients with hundreds of shots to choose from. They can’t understand why these clients never get any prints or very few prints from the studio. They think that people like to have a choice, and that the more choices you give them, the better. While the idea is not without merit, (because choice is a good thing) it can go to an extreme… and I think that’s where it’s going. The reason why they’re not getting prints done is because too many choices can also be paralyzing. If presented with 4 options, it is very easy to pick out which one you like best, whether it’s cars, cameras, televisions or photos. Presented with 400 cars, cameras, televisions or photos, the choice becomes more difficult and time consuming, primarily because you become concerned over picking the “wrong one”.

My perspective, in contrast, is to deliver just a select few shots. It makes the choices easier for the client. In a world where time is an increasingly valuable commodity, getting bogged down in sorting through hundreds of images trying to find one or two to print and hang can be more frustrating and lead to inaction. In essence it’s like you are transferring the process of elimination part of the work flow from your hands to the client. This has several downsides with minimal upsides. The one upside is that “Hey, the client chose this, not me.” can absolve you of responsibility for getting a bad shot framed. I would venture to ask though: why was a bad shot among the choices?

As I told a friend via email recently, it also comes to one of work flow management. Which would you rather deal with as a photographer – a work flow where you process 50 images or 500 images? The argument that “it’s digital, so what’s the big deal?” always seems to get under my skin a little bit. For me, the big deal is that some are going out there and not putting much time or thought into capturing the essence of a scene. They just lift the camera, point in the general direction of what they want and just fire away. I’ve actually heard the term “spray and pray” used for such shooters. The idea of slowing down and taking your time to both enjoy the moment and to really take into consideration all the nuances of things like lighting, shadows, and minimizing distractions has benefits. For me, the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Firstly, it is a much more enjoyable situation to be in. Not only do you have fewer images to process, but you can really take your time, pay attention to the detail, and get every nuance of the image pegged!

Secondly, you will probably find that you are less stressed yourself. You’re not worried about missing the shot because you didn’t have time to consider all the aspects – primarily because you are considering the nuances. Third, and most importantly, when you relax and aren’t stressed, your clients aren’t stressed either…a photographer and their subject often feed off each other. I have so much fun when taking pictures of subjects, I often forget that I am there for a specific reason – we’re enjoying the moment.

That’s right…we are enjoying the moment – client and photographer! We’re laughing, and having fun, and I just happen to have a camera in hand recording it. Yeah, the first shots are often always a little awkward for them, but once they see my mug grinning over the camera at them and laughing and joking around, the stress level decreases by a factor of ten! When your client is less stressed, they photograph better! They are more willing to strike goofy (in their eyes) poses! You can capture the shot!

So, that’s pretty much it: taking fewer shots will do three things for you:

Cut down on post processing (both for quantity and quality)
You stress less, and thus, your client stresses less.
You increase your keeper percentage!

Having said this, I realize that there are some situations where you have to mass produce images. Another friend of mine talked about a basketball or softball tournament where they had to take pics of every person on every team over the course of a weekend. With 50 players per team and upwards of 30-40 teams, that is 2000 shots to process – and that’s a small regional event even if it’s only one shot per person. Take it on to a national event, and it just ratchets up another notch. While the quantity is there, it’s also a different shot every frame. This is also not a fine art or a studio environment. This is a very fast-moving, fast-paced environment and is not applicable to the type of photography I am talking about here.

I would venture to guess though that most of us do not fall in that category…we’re shooting far less than this on average, so the quality versus quantity rule does apply in most scenarios. Now, if only I could take that principle and apply it to the writing here on the blog!

Before signing off today, just a couple closing thoughts to share that are non-related to this article:

Some link-love from two friends who are doing some cool 365/blogs (a picture a day for a year: very creative minds at work and so inspiring!
- – Rob Weiher (whom I’ve interviewed before here on the blog)
- – Peter (GrfxGuru)
Don’t forget the Numbers Contest – only 4 days to go for your chance to win a $500 software package: Flickr Thread for submissions

Happy shooting all, and watch those apertures!

Grab the Feed

The Moment of Oops

July 23, 2009 Jason6 Comments

Ever have a moment of “oops”? You know the moments, right? We’ve all had them:

That moment when you realized you said the wrong name..
That moment when you realized your ISO was set too high all day…
That moment when you realized you forgot your battery…
That moment when you realized you forgot your memory card…

Yes, these happen all the time – in the military they were referred to as “brain farts”. Your brain stops thinking, or thinks wrong, and it’s just embarrassing! Well, this happened to me on the photo walk last Saturday. Remember the photo walk? It was the one after I wrote a post about making a check list noting what to remember? Well, it happened anyway – I forgot my battery – left it charging in the charger in the kitchen! Well, with roughly 50 photogs around, there were enough Canon shooters, I figured I had a 50-50 shot. So, when our leader asked if there were any questions, I swallowed my pride, shamelessly raised my hand and called out:

“Any Canon 30D, 40D, or 50D shooters that have a spare battery? Mine is in the charger on the kitchen counter at home…”

Fortunately, there was someone with a spare. So, I was able to resurrect the day after all. I did have a back-up point and shoot camera, but it just wouldn’t have been the same for me – I had rented some glass for the day (a 28-135mm IS – review coming soon!), had my macro and wide angle, a monopod and all, so I was very grateful.

Well, today another “oops” moment happened – the blog post scheduled for Thursday, July 30th, not the 23rd! So, for the readers that are wondering if their feeds are broken – nope, it was my brain today. So, what was the point of all this? That we are all human, and thus, not perfect. This concept holds whether it’s a blog, a photo, or anything else you care to apply to the situation. In other words, to put things in photographic terms – you could find fault anywhere if you look hard enough for it. When looking at photos, whether it’s your work or others – don’t forget that a human being took that picture – it is that persons’ creative vision. It’s okay to critique things, but never expect perfection, because sometimes it’s the imperfections that make things so enjoyable!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the regularly scheduled blog posting (which I actually have pushed back a few hours so the feed isn’t double whammy’d)!

Grab the feed

Busted – guilty as charged…

July 21, 2009 Jason6 Comments

For the second week in a row, there will be no software review this Tuesday. The 2nd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk is the reason for eschewing the format again this week, so for those that miss the software reviews – go bug Mr. Kelby, it’s all his fault! 🙂 (Just kidding, don’t go bugging him, but if you don’t have his site in your RSS feed for daily reading, then you are missing out…)

Truth be told, the reason for the deferment again is to admit to the charges – and I may as well come clean, since my “friend” Gregg Lowrimore was kind enough to capture me with the evidence in hand. So, before the rumor mill starts blowing things out of proportion, let me just post the evidence myself and be done with it:

So, there it is – the “Canon Blogger” – holding a Nikon!

*****

The back story: I was holding the gear for a friend who had to use the facilities during the photo walk, when Greg happened to make note of the fact that “The Canon Blogger is holding a Nikon!” He snapped a picture of me (smiling happily for fellow photogs – and now you see why I prefer the other side of the lens than being the subject of the lens), and now is holding me ransom until I come clean.

He is, of course, kidding, but let me tell you that Gregg’s photography is far from a joke – you simply must visit his site as he’s got an incredible portfolio of work there, and is someone that I could definitely learn a thing or two from (including his skullduggery)! Please take a moment to visit his site here: http://www.lowrimore.com and get a taste of what I am talking about.

The other photo walk news I have is a short video of some of the results from the Worldwide Photowalk. Most of you have probably seen this by now, but I would be remiss if I did not share it here on the blog. Rather cool too that Scott also generously shared some of his blog space yesterday to the video as well. Regardless, here it is, and please, feel free to stop over to YouTube and share your own comments:

Since this was totally a “fun” post and not much depth or deep meaningful content here today, I promise to be back tomorrow with something that everyone enjoys – another podcast! (Episode #27 if my counting is correct…) Happy Shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Full Review: Apple iPod Touch 2G

July 20, 2009 Jason8 Comments

Having had the Touch now for about a week, I’ve had a fair amount of time to look at all the features, bells, whistles, and nuances of it to give a more thorough review. As this review begins, you surely must be asking, “How does this relate to photography?” An excellent question, so let me begin with the benefits relating to photography:

photo_icon

Photo Albums – this is a great way to take a portable portfolio with you where ever you go. Say you are in a grocery store, restaurant, or somewhere and a discussion starts about any good photographers. “Funny you should ask – I am a photographer…would you like to see a little bit of my portfolio?” Then whip out that Touch and pick an album to show them – the ooohs and ahhs could make the difference between landing the gig and having them respond with “We’ll let you know…” Having the extra advantage of being able to show at least a pocket-sized portfolio could make the difference between getting a gig or not. Interesting food for though…

networking

Networking – the Touch has built in wi-fi, so you can stay up to date as long as you are connected to a wifi network. Here in Denver there is a free wifi network downtown so as long as you are within range, you can check email, update status on Facebook, and network the latest developments on Twitter or Friendfeed.

Applications – bar none, the best feature in my opinion. From here I was able to download an FTP client, a photo editor (very light in function, i.e. cropping brighten, darken, saturate, desaturate, etc.) and voice recorder. Other utilities include sunrise/sunset calculators, light meters, word/excel editing apps, etc. As the saying goes, if there’s something you want to do, there’s an app for that. With these utilities I can do things like record audio snippets for the blog, upload said content to the blog or other website, do quick photo edits, or even review documents on the fly. The built in email service is also very handy.

podcast

Music/Podcasts – Just like other ipods, you can listen to music, podcasts, and because of the nice glossy screen, watch videos, including TV shows and movies (pretty much anything the Apple Store offers). As a blogger and podcaster, for me it is particularly useful because I can listen to what others are doing, and either ensure that I am keeping up, or ensure that I am producing original content that is enjoyable to my viewers and listeners. If you are a fan of podcasts and other such learning resources to increase your experience and knowledge base, this can also be useful as there are many good podcast resources out there for aspiring and learning photographers. What I am not a fan of in this regard though, is the fact that with the ability to install “applications”, the Touch still requires connection to a computer in order to manage your content. You have to delete apps, music, podcasts, pics and such from the iTunes application on your computer and not from your ipod. What’s up with that? You’d think Apple would build their own applications into something this robust…but more on the cons in a moment…

Having started with the negatives a little bit, let me go into some of the drawbacks.

Software I – the iPhone user is very fortunate because when the software update from 2.0 to 3.0 came out, the upgrade was free. Touch users saw no such benefit. I bought this a week ago, and had to pay for the privilege of getting the OS update to 3.0. Because of the benefits of it though, as well as the low cost (it was only $10), I went ahead and bit the bullet, but seeing as I had just spent over $200 for something brand new, in principle it seems that it should have shipped with OS 3.0 already on it.

Software II – A couple of the built in applications seem quirky, like the iTunes music. There is a neat feature called Shuffle where you shake the Touch and it creates a random playlist for you from your library of music. The problem is that it will keep generating new playlists randomly any time there is a little bit of shake unless you turn it off manually (say for your morning jog). There must be a better way to toggle this on and off – but I am not a software designer, so not sure how to even go about doing this.

Photo Albums – One of the advantages of the Apple setup over Windows (I had always thought this anyway) is that you don’t have the same pyramid of files and folder structures where things can get lost. Not really. If you want to create multiple albums within your Touch (or any other iPod for that matter), the best method is to create a sync folder on your computer, then sub-folders within there and then connect the iPod and let it sync to that folder.

Deleting stuff – As mentioned above, I don’t like that you have to sync the iPod to the computer, then un-check the apps in iTunes on the computer to remove from the iPod. Lastly, you have to then remove the applications from iTunes before they will be gone completely. Give me an option to remove from the iPod directly. The same goes for podcasts, music, photos, and the like – give me a way to delete (triple tap or something) from the iPod without having to resync. Reason: If I am on the go and a new podcast for Photoshop User TV comes out, I’ve got to have a fair amount of disc space available to download that from the wi-fi. If I don’t have an iTunes instance on an available laptop or PC to connect up and delete manually, I am S.O.L.

Music – It’s similar to, but tangential enough from the delete/sync issue above that I thought the music portion warranted its own discussion. This is not so much that I want to be able to delete music files, but I would like the ability to create playlists depending on what’s going on. On the photo walk over the weekend, I actually did have about 20 minutes where there was no one in my immediate vicinity to talk to, so I was shooting around and decided to listen to some music to help with inspiration. If the music isn’t right for the mood though, it can be distracting, so let me do that w/out having to re-sync back to iTunes to create another playlist – that’s just silly.

Camera – This is the only hardware element I have a complaint with – why did you not include a camera with the iTouch? It seems rather odd that given the preponderance of built in cameras in things like phones, PDA’s, and Blackberries, Apple would say “no, just for the iPhone folks”. Come on now…the TOuch seems like the more appropriate device for the camera than the iPhone. After all, the phone has a utilitarian function, why would you bundle a camera into that and not the more accessory nature of the Touch? Just seems like backward logic to me.

Accessories – The headphones for the iPhone have a built in microphone, and I can understand why they have always been included by default, but with the Touch 2G, and the new OS 3.0, the ability to record audio seems to becoming more and more standard as a way to make notes, deliver content to others. Wit that, I think Apple should have included the headphones with built in mic wit the Touch. It was a $30 investment, which I reluctantly paid, and am now glad I have, but really think Apple just wanted their extra little bit of my wallet in that scenario. *sigh*

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the gaming and entertainment aspect of the device as many people do find the diversions an enjoyable activity. For me though, I have other venues for distraction and don’t find as much benefit in them, but if you are of that particular ilk, then by all means, check out the App Store part of iTunes for whatever strikes your fancy.

Overall though, the nits I have with the Touch are minor. It’s a great device that can give me content to listen to, the ability to create my own content, and stay connected with family, friends, and colleagues. The ability to listen to music while surfing the internet, catch up on Twitter, check email, and even record some audio content for the blog makes the Touch a valuable addition to my belt.

Well, that’s about it for today, as I can’t think of any additional feedback to give on the Touch – I’d give it one and a half thumbs up. Until tomorrow, keep the energy going from the Worldwide Photowalk and keep on shooting! We’ll see you back here again tomorrow!